The effects of empowerment program on psychosocial self-efficacy in type one diabetic patients

Diabetes is a chronic disease that produces serious disabilities, complications, and effect all features of a patient’s life. One of the important parts of diabetes care is the patient’s active participation in the care plan. This patient-centered approach is called empowerment program, which its philosophy is enabling the patient to play an active role in planning and making decisions in health-related activities. With the failure of traditional methods in patient education, checking efficacy of new methods sounds essential. The purpose of this study was to estimate the effect of empowerment program on psychosocial self-efficacy in type 1 diabetic patients. In this semi-experimental research, 40 type 1 diabetic patients were randomly divided into two equal intervention and control groups. Diabetes empowerment scale, after obtaining content validity and reliability by the calculation of Cranach’s alpha, was used for data collection. Both groups completed the questionnaire. Then the empowerment program according to a former prepared protocol during six sessions and 90 minutes in length was held for the intervention group. Two months after intervention, both groups completed the questionnaire again. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Findings did not show any significant difference in psychosocial self-efficacy before the intervention (P> 0.05), but the difference was significant after the intervention (P= 0.000) in the intervention group. The implementation of empowerment program had a significant effect on psychosocial self-efficacy for type 1 diabetic patients and caused positive changes in total psychosocial self-efficacy scale and its subscales. Therefore, using similar programs can improve self-efficacy and enhance stress management. It also helps decision making for diabetes, facilitates the recognition of suitable and achievable goals, overcomes the barriers, and finally improves patient’s health status.